Ruan Qing didn't explain.
She just said, "Come with me." And started walking.
Chen Lu followed.
The building wasn't far. Just a few streets down from the funeral home. It was the kind of place people stopped noticing after a while. Old. Half-abandoned. Dark windows. Paint starting to peel all over the place. Nothing special.
Until you looked too long.
Ruan Qing stopped at the entrance. The door was slightly open. She pushed it and entered.
Chen Lu stepped in behind her. The air inside felt wrong. Cold. Stale. Still.
He frowned slightly. "You feel that?"
Ruan Qing nodded. "Yeah."
She didn't elaborate.
They walked in. Strange. Footsteps didn't echo. The floor didn't creak. Even the faint hum of the city outside cut off the moment the door closed behind them. Too quiet. Eery.
Chen Lu glanced around. No trash. No signs of people staying here. No graffiti. Nothing. Abandoned places were rarely this clean.
This wasn't abandoned. It was… emptied.
Ruan Qing walked ahead, not slowing down. At the end of the hallway, she stopped in front of a door. She hesitated. Just for a second. Then pushed it open.
---
The room inside was larger than it should have been. That was the first thing Chen Lu noticed. And there were people inside.
He didn't react immediately. He just stood there, letting his eyes adjust, letting his mind catch up with what he was seeing.
They were everywhere. Standing. Sitting. Leaning. One lying on the floor. A man by the window. A woman near a pillar. A girl sitting cross-legged, head slightly lowered.
They weren't arranged. They weren't gathered. They were just… there.
None of them moved. None of them spoke. None of them reacted.
Chen Lu stepped forward. "They're alive," he said.
Ruan Qing stayed near the door. "Yeah."
He moved closer to the nearest one. A man. Mid-thirties. Eyes open. Breathing. Slow. Real.
Chen Lu waved his hand in front of the man's face. No response.
"Hey."
Nothing.
He leaned slightly closer. "Can you hear me?"
Nothing. Not even a blink. Not even a shift in focus. It wasn't ignoring. It wasn't unconsciousness. It was nothing.
Chen Lu straightened. "How many?"
"Seventeen."
He looked around again. This time, he counted. Seventeen. No more. No less.
"What happened to them?"
Ruan Qing crossed her arms. "That's the problem," she said. "No one knows."
Chen Lu frowned. "No records?"
"Different places. Different cases. Different lives." She paused. "Same result."
He walked deeper into the room. The air felt heavier here. He stopped in front of a girl sitting on the floor. She looked normal. Too normal. That was the problem.
"Do you know your name?" he asked.
No response.
"Do you know where you are?"
Nothing.
He hesitated. "Do you know you're alive?"
Still nothing.
Behind him, Ruan Qing spoke quietly. "It's no use. They don't respond."
Chen Lu didn't turn. He was still looking at the girl. There was no resistance. No confusion. No fear. Nothing behind her eyes.
It wasn't emptiness. It was absence.
Chen Lu glanced around again. Seventeen bodies. Seventeen breathing people. Seventeen empty spaces.
"What are they?"
Ruan Qing answered. "Disconnected."
Chen Lu frowned. "From what?"
She didn't answer immediately. Then: "Everything."
He let that sit for a moment. It didn't make sense. But it didn't feel wrong either.
His gaze shifted. Not to them. Around them. Something felt off. Not visible. Not clear. Just present.
He turned slightly toward the window. There was a man standing there. Head tilted slightly, like he had been looking outside before stopping.
Chen Lu followed his line of sight. Nothing outside. Just the reflection of the room.
But something moved.
On the glass. A shadow. Thin. Wrong. Gone in a blink.
"You saw that?" Chen Lu asked.
"Yeah," Ruan Qing said.
"Since when?"
"A while."
He stepped closer to the man by the window. The air shifted. Subtle. Chen Lu stopped just within reach. The man didn't react. Chen Lu slowly raised his hand. He didn't touch. Not yet. Just reached.
Something resisted.
Not solid. Not visible. But there. Like a thin layer between him and the man.
Behind him, Ruan Qing said quietly, "Chen Lu—"
He didn't stop. His hand moved closer. The air tightened.
Closer. Closer.
And then a flicker. A shadow. It moved too fast.
Chen Lu froze.
For a brief second, the man's fingers twitched. Small. Barely there. But real.
Chen Lu's eyes sharpened. "Do you see that?"
Ruan Qing didn't answer. Silence was enough.
He slowly lowered his hand. The pressure disappeared. The room returned to what it was before. Still. Heavy. Wrong.
Chen Lu stepped back. His gaze moved across the room again. Seventeen. Unmoving. Unaware. Unreachable.
But not alone.
"Something's here," he said.
Ruan Qing nodded. "I know."
Chen Lu looked at the window again. Nothing there. Nothing visible. But the space didn't feel empty anymore. It felt occupied.
He exhaled slowly. "Good."
Ruan Qing frowned slightly. "Good?"
Chen Lu turned toward her. There was something different in his expression now. Not curiosity. Not confusion. Something sharper.
"If something's here," he said, "then it can be found."
Ruan Qing didn't reply. She just looked at him. And understood.
He wasn't going to walk away from this. He had already stepped too far in.
Behind them, on the glass, for a brief moment, something shifted.
Watching. Waiting.
And now aware.
---
They didn't talk until they were outside.
The door closed behind them without a sound. Chen Lu glanced back once. The building looked the same as before. Empty. Dead. Like nothing was inside.
It almost felt convincing.
"Since when?" he asked.
Ruan Qing didn't need clarification. "First one showed up three months ago," she said. "Then another. Then more."
"And no one noticed?"
"They did." She paused. "Just not like this."
Chen Lu frowned. "What does that mean?"
"It means people disappear all the time," she said flatly. "Missing persons. Runaways. Accidents with no bodies." She looked at him. "These are the ones that didn't leave properly."
Chen Lu didn't respond immediately. He turned his gaze back to the building.
"Them inside," he said slowly. "They're not dead."
"No."
"They're not ghosts."
"No."
He let out a quiet breath. "And the court didn't take them."
That time, Ruan Qing didn't answer right away. "No," she said eventually.
That was wrong. Not confusing. Wrong.
Chen Lu had seen how the system worked. People died. They crossed. They were judged. Even when things went wrong, there was still a process. Still a direction. Still something.
But those seventeen, nothing.
"What are they?" he asked.
Ruan Qing crossed her arms. "Dunno," she said.
Chen Lu looked at her. "You've seen this before."
She nodded. "Not like this. Not this many." A pause. "But yeah."
"And?"
"And nothing."
He narrowed his eyes slightly. "Nothing?"
"No explanation. No resolution. No one comes for them." She hesitated. "No one even talks about them."
That part mattered. Chen Lu picked up on it immediately.
"No one meaning who?"
Ruan Qing didn't look at him. "The court."
Silence. The street felt louder than before. Cars passing. Distant voices. A dog barking somewhere far away. Normal. Too normal.
"So the court knows and didn't do anything?" Chen Lu said. It wasn't a guess.
Ruan Qing nodded. "Yeah. They're containing it."
He held her gaze for a moment longer. Then looked back at the building.
"They're not crossing," he said quietly.
"No."
"They're not staying."
"No."
"They're just there."
Ruan Qing didn't respond. Because there wasn't anything to add.
Chen Lu exhaled slowly. "That's not how this works."
"So you said."
"Then why is it happening?"
Ruan Qing didn't answer. Not because she didn't want to. Because she didn't have one.
The silence stretched. Then: "Don't go back in," she said suddenly.
Chen Lu glanced at her.
"That wasn't a suggestion."
"I know."
"You're going to ignore it."
"Yeah."
She let out a quiet breath. "I figured."
They stood there for a moment. Neither moving. Neither leaving. The building sat behind them. Quiet. Still. Waiting.
Chen Lu's gaze drifted upward. Second floor. Third. Dark windows. Nothing inside.
Except he felt it again. That same pressure. Faint. Distant. But there. Watching.
He didn't look directly this time. He didn't need to.
"It's not them," he said.
Ruan Qing followed his gaze but saw nothing. "What isn't?"
"The problem."
She looked back at him. "I know."
He frowned slightly. "No, I mean." He paused. "They're not the cause."
Ruan Qing didn't respond. Because that sounded right. Too right.
Chen Lu's expression tightened slightly. "Something put them there."
"Or took something out," Ruan Qing said.
He glanced at her. She didn't look convinced. She just sounded tired.
"Same difference," he said.
"No," she replied quietly. "Not really."
That sat between them. Uncomfortable. Unfinished.
---
Then the air shifted.
Subtle. But immediate. Like a layer of something sliding over reality.
Chen Lu felt it first. A familiar pressure. Not from the building. Not from the seventeen. From somewhere else.
Ruan Qing noticed his expression change. "What is it?"
He didn't answer. He was looking at the glass of a nearby storefront. Not at his reflection. At something behind it. Or on it.
It appeared slowly this time. Not a flicker. Not a distortion. A shape. Faint. Thin. A figure.
Standing just behind his reflection. No. Standing where his reflection should have been.
Ruan Qing turned slightly. "You see it too?"
Chen Lu didn't move.
The figure sharpened. Not fully. But enough. A woman. Draped in grey. Still. Watching. The glass didn't reflect her properly. It held her. Like she was placed there instead of mirrored.
Chen Lu's voice was quiet. "Did you follow me?"
The figure didn't respond. Didn't move. Didn't blink.
"You shouldn't be here," the woman in grey said.
Her voice didn't come from the glass. It came from everywhere around it. Flat. Calm. Final.
Chen Lu didn't look away. "You knew about them."
Silence.
"That place is not yours to interfere with," she said.
"They cannot be judged," the woman in grey said.
"Why?" Chen Lu asked immediately.
No answer.
"They're alive."
Silence.
"They're not crossing."
Silence.
"They're not anything."
The air tightened slightly. Not aggressive. Not hostile. But firm.
"You should not be here," she repeated.
Chen Lu let out a quiet breath. "That's not an answer."
The reflection trembled slightly. Just enough to notice. Ruan Qing took a small step back. Instinct. Nothing more.
Chen Lu didn't move. His gaze stayed locked on hers.
"What happens if I go back?" he asked.
This time, the woman in grey looked at him. Not through him. Not past him. At him. For the first time.
The pause stretched. Long enough to feel intentional. Long enough to feel like a decision.
Then: "Then the consequence is yours."
The reflection broke. Not shattered. Not violently. It just stopped.
The glass returned to normal. Only Chen Lu's reflection remained. Nothing else. The pressure in the air faded.
Ruan Qing exhaled. "That wasn't a warning."
Chen Lu didn't respond immediately. He was still looking at the glass. At his own reflection now. Normal. Empty. Nothing behind it.
"No," he said quietly. "It wasn't."
He turned back toward the building. The door still slightly open. Unchanged. Uninviting. Waiting.
Ruan Qing watched him. She already knew.
"You're going back."
Chen Lu didn't deny it. Didn't explain it. Didn't justify it. He just looked at the building. At the silence inside it. At the thing behind that silence.
"Yeah."
And this time, he didn't hesitate.